New Budget Airlines for Japan

The year 2012 will see the entry of three new budget airlines, also known as low cost carriers (LCC), into the Japanese market, creating increased competition and lower fares on several domestic and international routes. While Japan already has a number of budget airlines that compete with the established JAL and ANA, the arrival of the new airlines will further heat up the competition.

The new airlines will operate out of Japan's two major international airports, Tokyo's Narita Airport and Osaka's Kansai Airport, providing foreign travelers with cheap connections to domestic destinations such as Sapporo, Fukuoka and Okinawa. They will also operate on a few international routes, mainly to Korea and China, and plan to gradually extend their route networks.